INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
OkCredit, a Bangalore-based startup that enables small merchants to digitize their bookkeeping, has raised $67 million in a new financing
round to grow its business in the nation.The Series B financing round for the two-year-old startup was led by Lightspeed and Tiger Global
The new round, which follows the Series A in June, increases OkCredit’s total raise to $83 million.OkCredit operates an eponymous mobile
app that allows merchants to keep track of their day-to-day purchases and sales
Last month, OkCredit founders told TechCrunch in an interview that the app had amassed more than 5 million active merchants across 2,000
cities in India.Amy Wu, a partner at Lightspeed US, said OkCredit’s active users have grown 76 times since the beginning of the year
It’s one of the fastest-growing companies we’ve seen and reflects the incredible virality and network effects of the business,” Wu
added.A wide range of merchants, from roadside vendors to grocery shop owners and pharmacies, have joined OkCredit.Even as more than 500
million users in India today are online, most merchants in the nation are yet to digitize their business, according to industry estimates
They still rely on large notebooks to keep a log of their transactions.“Technology has moved from collecting payments in cash, to using
More recently, QR codes, paper bills turned to printed bills
But the one thing that has not changed is the fact that most customers still purchase goods on credit recorded in a notebook,” Harsh
Pokharna, chief executive of OkCredit said in a statement.Pokharna told TechCrunch today that the startup will use the capital to hire more
people and grow its merchant user base
The startup also plans to build more products for merchants.Vyapar and KhataBook are two more startups in India that are attempting to solve
a similar problem.In a statement, Harsha Kumar, a partner at Lightspeed, said, “technology adoption in India will happen across sectors
For the longest time, mSME as a segment was ignored but we have seen through Udaan, OkCredit and other Lightspeed investments in the SME
space that tech usage is growing rapidly
Very excited and honored to have a front row seat in this journey!”
